post your favorites, what you like to use. if you're not a tekkie just post what player you use etc mainly anything pertaining to audio/video and this hobby. make an endless list of everything from your tv to your preferred walkman if you like, we will read it. In fact, I encourage you to try to bore us :lol:

I would've made it a poll, but it would be too hard to get every option in there.

okay, I'll start...this is the stuff I'm using, in some cases I have better stuff that isn't hooked up just now other times I'm plainning an upgrade like we all are... not every last thing I own is listed, just the stuff I've been most using recently.

please add your comments!!

here's my list... if it gets boring use the scroll wheel on your mouse :lol

Recording/gigging pedals:
11 selfbuilt Ibanez TS-9 clones, all with slightly different characteristics and base sounds
Dunlop CryBaby, can't remember exact model, it's the one with volume pedal built-in and true bypass
Boss Flanger, Chorus and Delay pedals
some old 70's Equalizer where the brand name has worn off over a decade ago
A closetfull of other random pedals that I use very rarely such as Octavers, Harmonizers and other gimmicks

I got to thinking about the electronic stuff I use day in day out right about now and what needs upgrading in terms of hardware and software. Then I got to wondering what its like for other ppl, if anybody's got a computer that's as out of date as mine etc :lol:

its not really supposed to be a list of anything and everything you own, mainly just the stuff that you use most often that's associated with taping/trading. I kind of got off track with the videogames but included that since portable gaming is like a walkman of a sort.

Oh yeah I use TLH, very old version that I should get to updating and sometimes still run FFE.

U2Lynne

2007-11-07, 10:11 AM

The main things I use:

- iMac 2.16 GHz Intel dual core yada, yada..
- OS 10.4 still
- Altec Lansing w/ sub-woofer speakers hooked up to it.
- iTunes and cog for playing music on there
- xACT for all lossless stuff
- firefox :loveff:
- iPod - gen3, it seems to be having some problems, so maybe a new one for Xmas :)

Kitchen also has Altec Lansing speakers set up (with a sub-woofer also) to hook up to my iPod when I'm cooking

Nothing fancy in the car. Just a five disc changer and standard radio.

xcv111

2007-11-07, 02:59 PM

How about speakers?
Quite essential. Aren't they? I have Gradient 1.3 speakers. About 17 years old already. Right. Ancient. Yeah. I do know this model don't go as low as 20 kHz. They are at their best when listening to acoustic music - not in your face r'n'r speakers at all. And yeah. I do know that a lot has happened at the speaker front since these speakers were made.

But anyway... At least Gradient 1.3 speakers were rewarded for their design, which make them just perfect for interior decorating. :D

If interested about their philosophy of making speakers - I assure there's something to think about even for pros - here are few links:
http://www.regonaudio.com/Gradients.html
http://www.gradient.fi/news

Five

2007-11-07, 03:04 PM

yeah I'm just using the Technics bookshelf speakers right now, gonna get NS-10s running soon enough. I've got a Yorkville I can use for bass too & gonna treat the room for flat response :thumbsup But gotta get my goddam roof replaced before I have that :( in a couple months I'll be rocking.

xcv111

2007-11-07, 03:12 PM

flat response
That's Gradient's philosophy in the nut shell.

AAR.oner

2007-11-07, 03:39 PM

yeah I'm just using the Technics bookshelf speakers right now, gonna get NS-10s running soon enough. I've got a Yorkville I can use for bass too & gonna treat the room for flat response :thumbsup But gotta get my goddam roof replaced before I have that :( in a couple months I'll be rocking.
that ain't bad at all, hell our speakers are ancient! running a pair of JVC SK-S44s i remember my pop's buying back when i was in grade school, and a 15+ yr old subwoofer [dbx db-SW15 Plus] that is in need of a new set of fuses at the moment...components are of course newer, run-of-the-mill technics & pioneer [on sale purchases]

but those speakers are still holding strong, despite years of metal and hip hop :lol

one day i'm hopin to score this 35-40 yr old sansui amp my dad got for his couzin in korea back in the early 70s [still running perfectly of course]...now thats a beautiful sounding piece of equipment

yeah I'm just using the Technics bookshelf speakers right now, gonna get NS-10s running soon enough.

I don't want to be rude, but in my opinion you're better off with the Technics than a pair of NS-10s. Mixing anything below 100Hz with a pair of those are just guessing. :down:

Anything above 100Hz is almost guessing. :hmm:

Five

2007-11-07, 06:12 PM

industry standard for over 20 years might contradict what you're saying. of course you can't work on the bass on them, they're near field monitors. anyway, I already bought them. I don't want trendy genelecs I want what they used in the studios where they made zeppelin records.

ps no offense taken :wave:

SundayDriver

2007-11-07, 08:52 PM

Nice thread Five. If you are interested, here is some of the "equipment" that I use for this great hobby:

industry standard for over 20 years might contradict what you're saying.

Nope, it can't. And I can explain why, if you want me to. (It's an interesting story although I don't have all the details.)

If you don't want me to, let's just get back to sleep. ;) (Well, off the work actually.)

direwolf-pgh

2007-11-08, 10:05 AM

i have few electronics that are considered favorites.
but this piece of equipment fascinated me.

direwolf-pgh

2007-11-08, 10:07 AM

this would be the second item that i really enjoyed.

..now everything today just seems more of the same.

saltman

2007-11-08, 10:18 AM

i have few electronics that are considered favorites.
but this piece of equipment fascinated me.Do you still have that one? I have a IIc at home. and a Tandy 1000 and a 1000ex. I've got the tape drives and everything.

Just waiting for the Smithsonian to call any day now. Maybe I'll fire one up tonight in celebration of this thread.

direwolf-pgh

2007-11-08, 10:19 AM

as for software.. Mosaic.
-going from terminal to GUI was really cool.

using Peak (multitrack software on a mac) for the first time was a rush too.

Do you still have that one?nope :(
Ive seen them on ebay for a few $$$.. but figured I was just being nostalgic.
Using an emulator & some old text adventures confirmed this notion.

Five

2007-11-08, 10:37 AM

Nope, it can't. And I can explain why, if you want me to. (It's an interesting story although I don't have all the details.)

If you don't want me to, let's just get back to sleep. ;) (Well, off the work actually.)
if you feel like it, tell me all about it. almost every pro studio photo I see at the mixer, there's those NS-10s sitting there. Seems strange that you're saying you can only hear 100Hz and nothing above or below :hmm:

VonOben

2007-11-08, 11:12 AM

if you feel like it, tell me all about it. almost every pro studio photo I see at the mixer, there's those NS-10s sitting there. Seems strange that you're saying you can only hear 100Hz and nothing above or below :hmm:

Well ok, I'll keep it short. No need to get into very long arguments about the NS-10. :)

First of all, it has a very, very non-linear response. For some measurements see page 2, on the right, here: http://www.lts.a.se/artiklar/YamahaNS10.pdf

Worse, the response vary extremly with the angle. What sounds right sitting one way sounds very different if you move your head a couple of inches. (Lack of integration between the tweeter and woofer makes this happen, as well as a very bad cross-over.)

Even worser, the non-linear response is very different from almost any other speaker. Some argue that these reflects what most people use at home, but it's the other way around, really. They sound like nothing else.

There are other cons as well, but these will do. :)

The most common way to tweak these bastards are by letting a napkin hang in front of the tweeter, that should speak for itself.

Now, one thing that is (or,really, were) good about these boxes are that most studios have (had) them, that way you worked with familiar equipment.

So, how did these become popular? Party it's the swedish public service radio's fault! They, SR, had (have?) a very good reputation in the world for creating top notch quality program material. SR were about to replace all of their studio monitors (that's alot) in the late 70s, and arranged a sort of competition for loudspeaker manufacturers. The NS-10 won this, and were placed in all of SRs studios. Now, you might wonder, why did SR choose them if they aren't any good?

Well, Yamaha knew about SRs reputation, and gave SR all the speakers _for free_! Something they haven't regret. :lol:

PS. On page 3 in that linked PDF, on the left, is the schematics on how to build a NS-10 "simulator" if you want your ordinary, reasonable flat, speakers to sound like the NS-10. It can, unfortunately, do miracles with alot of 80s material since it corrects for the mistakes* that were made in the mix due to the use of the NS-10. Eurytmics is a good example.

Anyhow, the bottom line here... if you like them, use them. Be happy! :) But keep in mind that there are nothing "transparent" about them.

* = the simulator can ofcourse not simulate the bad integration between the elements.

Five

2007-11-08, 12:09 PM

hey thanks so much for posting that's great info. I can at least try to get the room almost flat (maybe use some other speakers for tweaking that :lol: ).

a friend of mine recommended them to me, and now that you mentioned it I recall him telling me about the spike in the mids and generally uneven response. he said legend has it that if you can make it sound good on NS-10s it will sound good on anything (ok except for bass you can't check that on these obviously). I know you'll disagree but that kind of a legend/myth is the kind I have to investigate :D I'll give them a chance and if they don't work out I should be able to get about the same that I paid for them on eBay and buy something else that's better. what is your recommendation for replacement near field monitors for studio use, then?

I wish I could read more of that pdf... for the circuit there, the resistors with values without the "k" appearing are ohms? the rest is really straightforward.

ps your english is quite good, really :wave:

xcv111

2007-11-08, 02:02 PM

Finnish Broadcast Company (YLE) have mostly Genelec speakers as monitors. Those babies might be a decent choise. Of course only if you are prepared put some real money down. :D

Five

2007-11-08, 02:29 PM

haha ... I was mentioning them a few posts back

something like $5,000USD, right? :eek:

I've heard them and also the mackie clones. for some reason I'm not keen on them at all, but may have to reconsider. They are awesome for impressing clients because anything you play on them sounds better than it really is :D

xcv111

2007-11-08, 02:57 PM

something like $5,000USD, right? :eek:
Yup. Genlec speakers are pretty costly. Possibly also because of being active speakers with built-in amplification.
I've heard them and also the mackie clones. for some reason I'm not keen on them at all, but may have to reconsider. They are awesome for impressing clients because anything you play on them sounds better than it really is :D
Yup. I was quite impressed when I heard them - made The Cramps sound like Pink Floyd. It's quite essential to have top notch speakers when listening to The Cramps. :D

And they are great interior decoration solution as well - they are pretty good looking with them sexy curved and rounded edges. :D

Five

2007-11-08, 03:52 PM

YES :lol: :lol: :lol: :clap:

AAR.oner

2007-11-08, 06:17 PM

i like the Alesis M1s for inexpensive, near-field monitors...great bass response when working with LF-heavy music [especially hip hop, jungle/DnB, etc], and extremely flat response...obviously not the greatest monitors in the world, but at under $500 a pair, they give most monitors twice the price a run for their money

here's an interesting article about em, with comparisons to the Genelec 1031s and the NS-10s ;)
http://mixguides.com/studiomonitors/Reviews/alesis-m1-1099/

VonOben

2007-11-09, 08:39 AM

he said legend has it that if you can make it sound good on NS-10s it will sound good on anything (ok except for bass you can't check that on these obviously). I know you'll disagree but that kind of a legend/myth is the kind I have to investigate :D

Yea, I'm familiar with that legend. I can see the point while I still disagree. ;)

what is your recommendation for replacement near field monitors for studio use, then?

The ones I use, although they are difficult to buy. They are called Ino Audio piP: http://mordvap.net/filer/pip.jpg

There are a comercial version of these aswell, called Guru QM10. Much, much more expensive but also much easier to buy. Their ancestor, the piP, are performing equally but can for ideological reasons only be bought on location in Stockholm. :(

Here's a second opinion: http://www.avguide.com/news/2007/10/18/rocky-mt-2007-harley-calls-sjofn-biggest-bargain/

The piP's are much cheaper, around 4200SEK (ca £320, $665), if you assembly them yourself, wich takes about an hour. The downside is ofcourse that you'll have to find someone in Stockholm that can send them to you.

With -3dB at 34Hz, they are really unbeleivable. I would not trade these for anything else that I've heard, besides their bigger brother pi60s. (But that's a leap up to £3200, $6700... :( Not to mention the commercial version of the pi60s: Guru QM40...) Picture of pi60s: http://www.minhembio.com/bild/77851.jpg

I think the Genelecs are okey, but not really blistering. We have an expensive 5.1 Genelec setup at work and it's nice to pump out Iron Maidens DVD Rock in Rio while watching the show on the 315" Hitachi video wall... but I wouldn't trade my piP's for that speaker setup. (There's a factor x37 in price difference.)

B&W produces some nice speakers. Carlsson are great but not for monitoring and can only be found second hand. NHT makes some really good loudspeakers!

I wish I could read more of that pdf... for the circuit there, the resistors with values without the "k" appearing are ohms? the rest is really straightforward.

Yes, that's Ohm. Without any prefix. I'll check if there's any english version of that article, otherwise I could try to make a quick n' dirty translation.

ps your english is quite good, really :wave:

Thank you. :) Partly that's because we do not dub movies/tv-programs here. :)

Homebrew101

2007-11-09, 10:33 AM

PC is home made (from a friend) with Intel Core 2 Duo 6600, 2 gig RAM, with 250 gig and 400 gig internal hard drives; Lite-On LH-20A1P & Lite-On SHM-165P6S dvd burners (the 165P6S is on it's last legs after thousands of burns)
Firefox for browsing, I mainly use Foobar2000 for pc playback and ripping mp3's for my Creativer Muvo1000 2 gig mp3 player

The problem with my Lite-On burners is they cannot be set for offset correction, I have tried and they do not have a consistent offset :mad:

Router: Linksys WGS54G Wireless (yes the stock admin login has been changed) I use the trigger on port function instead of using a specific port each time for torrents.

Software: (I'm in the process of trying free utilities)
uTorrent 1.75 (I tried Azareus but didn't care for it, I don't want a HTTP window to open while I'm downloading)

Nero 8 Suite for Wave editing etc.

MediaMonkey V2.55: (this is way better for setting up and retagging MP3's and other formats then most things I've tried. I liked it so much I bought the lifetime license/updates version). This will automatically convert a FLAC file into MP3 as it loads music into my portable device too.

Walkman type device(Ha! I'm a product born in the early sixties so I call all iPod related devices Walkmans): iRiver CLIX 2GB generation 1. I also have a utility that will convert AVi into the right size to play on CLIX.

VLC media player V0.8.6: Vista/WMP V11 checks for codecs and won't play if it decides somethings not right. No worries with VLC.

Stereo Equipment: Some 4 year old Sony desktop thing. I can patch a line into the digital input of my soundcard to convert tapes into a wave file.

My Klipsch V2-400's. First THX certified computer speakers. They may not be the best anymore but they still rock. 400 watt's babeee.

My Klipsch iGroove's. Makes my iPod sound spectacular at work. And I can crank it loud enough to piss off a construction site. :thumbsup

And another favorite, Peggle. It's like fucking crack. Damn you PopCap. :lol

dcbullet

2007-11-15, 07:23 PM

I've got a bunch of gear that I'll post when I'm drunk and posting.

In the mean time, the absolute best piece of technology to come along for me in the last few years is the DVR. Oh my god how that has transformed my life. I never realized there were soooo many shows that I would be interested in! And I can watch them twice as fast!

DVR is great.

possessed

2007-11-15, 07:45 PM

And I can watch them twice as fast!

DVR is great.
:roflol: :roflol:

Five

2007-11-16, 11:37 AM

Analog Sources: TT-Technics SL1200 modified to play 78s
too cool... do you use a normal cartridge for 78s or do you need a different needle for that? my old phono I had as a kid you had to flip the cartridge to get a different needle when playing 78s (as well as adjust the speed control).

too cool... do you use a normal cartridge for 78s or do you need a different needle for that? my old phono I had as a kid you had to flip the cartridge to get a different needle when playing 78s (as well as adjust the speed control).

Five, I grew up with that type too. The V15xMR has a replaceable stylus. One for micro-groove (33s) and one for wide grooves (78s). Basicaly the same as you remember except you physically change the stylus. The cartridge stays on the tonearm.